Blood Stained Host
Hidden Light

The band from Pescara, active since 1994, returns with this new "Hidden Light" after 14 long years of silence.
After having released in 1998 that little underground masterpiece of melodic doom known as "Individual Theatre", the Abruzzo band broke up and remained in a slumber for more than a decade.
In 2008, the new form of Blood finally sees the light after numerous lineup changes, with only two of the founding members remaining, Emilio Chella on drums and Eric Giancaterino on guitar.

Stylistically breaking off all ties to the past at times (although doom influences are present everywhere), the band presents us with atmospheric death metal rich in keyboards and melodic phrasings. I can comfortably compare them with Anathema and say the goal has been partially achieved, even though some tracks suffer from excessive prolixity and seem to never reach the quid.
The quality of the riffs certainly stands above average, and episodes like "Inverted Sentence" (among the most successful) do not go unnoticed, providing the listener with an expressive and capable ability to find non-static evolutions in the most intense moments.

With "Hatred," the style changes, and orchestrations provide sustain to a very well-crafted solid rhythmic base (the bass on Hidden is among the best I've ever heard, both in terms of arrangements and presence in an underground product). Another round of applause must certainly go to the lead guitarist, who excellently delivers solos of great caliber, always perfectly placed.

It must be said that the only thing that makes the work a bit tedious is the voice. The deep growl provides no moments of light, and in some cases, it even hinders the music from "taking off," despite also venturing into decent screaming efforts.

In "In a Strange Dimension," the style changes, and from the initial doom, you find yourself projected into a Swedish-style death metal, neither infamous nor praiseworthy. Honestly, the band's dark doom side is far superior to useless digressions like these, where even a good group like Blood could easily find themselves floating in the classic pool of "copycat" bands lacking personality. Just over 2 minutes in, it slows down, and the best ideas of the Pescara combo emerge, finally regaining the right coordinates, but unfortunately, it's already too late. Stylistically speaking, their vague "progressive" taste easily makes one lose their bearings, soon finding themselves immersed in an excessive jumble of ideas.

Probably if all the ideas channeled into one piece had been carefully considered, some things would have taken on the appearance of a masterpiece, and instead of eight pieces, they would have easily reached at least 12/13 tracks. Too much stuff crammed into a single song.

With "Heartless," the pinnacle of B.S.H. is reached, offering us in eight minutes an excellent doom/death piece with captivating melodies. Finally, the voice in the intro changes style and in the spoken part shows excellent versatility.
The lead guitar bursts into the calm of the song, creating an excellent pathos with an anthology-worthy melody, while soon thereafter, catacomb-like keyboards with nods to Cradle of Filth prepare the right ground for an excellent interpretation in a heavy/doom style, stylistically reminiscent of the Cathedral. One caveat, the usual nod to the Swedish school occasionally peeks through, ruining the previously established solutions.

"Sons of Hate" turns out to be the worst episode of the record and appears in all respects as a filler, where the stylistic solutions of Blood overlap and retrace what's already been said in previous pieces. With "Hymn to God," they return to decent standards, and as always, the keyboard does an excellent job of creating the right atmosphere for a piece that recalls the aforementioned Cradle of Midian and winks at the more melodic Dark Tranquillity (The Gallery). A notch below "Heartless," in any case, but presenting in another guise a band that can convince the listener when it wants to.

"Equal" turns out to be the most experimental piece of the full album in terms of sounds, getting B.S.H. back on the right track, as they give their best in slow compositions. Essentially, the defects of Blood can be summarized in verbosity and in the fact that they too often put an excessive amount of meat on the fire, weighing down the listening experience where perhaps more "sound violence" would be preferred over pathos and calm.

The guys in this album have somewhat lost the direction to follow (if you compare this product to the previous one) and do not provide clarity of intent in their compositions, even though there are excellent ideas and truly commendable tracks that "get lost" too easily. Last but not least, the voice is far too present; a bit less singing wouldn't hurt, and especially more variety in the execution. As for the production, nothing to say; the album slips away with excellent sounds and with perfectly understandable balances between the various instruments.
The cover is very nice, but on an aesthetic level, the judgment stops here, as we have in hand a record that does not present lyrics and stops at a simple group photo in the inlay. After 14 years and an "Individual Theatre" behind them, I honestly expected more.

On DaBaser, there are no "half ratings," but as far as I'm concerned, a 2.5 out of 5 is objectively the score to give.
Let's go for a 3 rounded up, and I eagerly await their definitive test.

In the end, the foundation in this new incarnation is there; it just needs to be developed and well directed.